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Friday, March 29, 2013

Writing Time Is Of The Essence

By

Karl Vadaszffy

For most people
who write, writing isn’t a full-time job. Most people aren’t fortunate enough
to be able to match the success of James Patterson or J.K. Rowling. But that
doesn't stop them from striving for publication.

Most of us work
a day job and then write when we can. This might be in the evenings, at
weekends or, like with me, during holidays. I’m a secondary school teacher –
head of English, Media Studies and Drama in Garston, Hertfordshire – so my
evenings are typically spent on my school responsibilities: planning lessons,
marking students’ work and completing my management duties.

Full of Sin, my first novel, was written over a
period of four years – and it’s a short book at only 180 pages. But I think
challenges on time aren’t unique to me; they’re faced by most authors. How can
you write a novel when you have to work 9AM-5PM? Or, indeed, if you have to
work in the evenings as well, as teachers, lawyers and members of many other
professions have to?

I wrote a draft
of a story – 200 handwritten pages – when I was just 16. When I was 22 years
old, I returned to that story and Full of Sinwas born. When I was 26, it was published by a small independent press
in the north of the UK.
It didn't sell well and, looking back on it, there were a number of things we
should have done differently, but it was thrilling, after hundreds of
rejections, to finally be accepted for publication.

As part of my
work at school, I met international bestselling author Sophie Hannah, whose
debut novel Little Faceis one of my
favourite crime novels. She read Full of Sinand enjoyed it, but as a dark drama she realised its market was
limited. She advised me to try my hand at writing crime fiction, so I set out
to produce a novel in the style of LittleFace. A character is in an extraordinary situation who has to find a way
out, which to the reader seems impossible. A police investigation runs
concurrently.

My story – John
Simmons’ girlfriend goes missing en route to an evening at the theatre in London and when the
police investigate they find no evidence that she exists – ended up called The Waiting Game. I was signed up by a top
UK
agency by a wonderful agent, Sonia Land. She represents, among others, Susan
Hill, Peter Ackroyd and Neil White. After working on the novel together, it was
retitled The Missing and released by
Peach Publishing.

This time the
journey from the first word to the final product lasted about two years.

Since its
release in June, The Missing has sold
almost 40,000 eBooks on Amazon and became a top ten bestseller, peaking at
number six. A paperback will be forthcoming, exclusively through Amazon. And
because of its success, I was able to rewrite Full of Sin, which has since been rereleased.

The Missing, likeFull of Sin, was written during breaks from school. Publicising it
has been another important factor – whatever free moment there is in an evening
or at a weekend needs to be spent online, working on various social media
channels. Social media is, indeed, remarkable in its capability in reaching
readers.

So whatever your
story if you’re a writer, time is of the essence. Persevere and you can get
there. It may take you four months or it may take four years, but it’s always
worth it in the end.

____________________________________________________________________

Karl Vadaszffy trained as an
English teacher and trained actor at the London Centre for Theatre Studies. He has edited magazines, taught English as a foreign
language in Poland and
taught English, Media Studies and Drama in secondary schools in England. He is the Head of English,
Drama and Media Studies at an Ofsted in
Hertfordshire. Karl currently
juggles his teaching responsibilities with work as a freelance journalist. His
articles regularly appear in ten industry-leading magazines that cover the
automotive, aerospace, technology and travel sectors. His articles are read by
over 12,000 subscribers in print, and more online.

K

arl established The Astley Cooper School’s author
visits programme, many bestselling authors including Frederick Forsyth, Jodi Picoult, Sophie Hannah, Peter James,
Darren Shan, Joanne Harris, Michael Marshall, Deborah Moggach and Elizabeth
Buchan. Karl was a
competitive fencer for seven years and a three-time British Epee Champion. He has coached actors in fencing, including Ralph Fiennes and Robson Green, to prepare them for screen roles. www.karlvad.comhttps://twitter.com/KarlVad

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